THE proposed increase in fees for procurement of firearm licences has been criticized by the opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP).

“It is a lazy way to bring in revenue and the government should find other creative ways to rake in revenue,” Clement Rohee, the PPP’s General Secretary said at a press conference Monday.

During his budget speech last Friday, Finance Minister Winston Jordan announced that he would be moving to amend the Firearms Act to increase the annual fee for firearm licences. The fee for a shotgun licence is to be raised from $2000 to $5000; the cost for a handgun licence will move from $5000 to $25,000; and the rifle licence fee will be increased from $5000 to $40,000. As for dealers in firearms, their fee would be double the current price of $7500.

Rohee said that the new fees are exorbitant and designed to “rob citizens” of disposable income in their pockets.

Many persons, he said, stand to be directly affected, with the majority of them being farmers of indigenous heritage.

Rohee suggested that a large number of farmers were issued with licences to use guns so as to protect their livestock and crops from wild animals and other threats.

“Amerindian communities was another sector that was given consideration (for firearm licences) because Amerindians live a life that required moving from bow and arrow to some form of firearm, which was mainly a shotgun, to assist them in protecting their families, villages,” Rohee stated.

Rohee argued that the new fees could also foster corruption.

“As the fees go up the bribes will increase as well; you know they say the sticker the government the wiser the population,’ Rohee told reporters at the PPP’s Freedom House Headquarters in Georgetown.